


A whole new world

by RoyalMuffin



Category: Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty
Genre: M/M, dipper works in retail for the shack bc why not, idk what else to tag tbh, moreso implied dipper/morty than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:54:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24158446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyalMuffin/pseuds/RoyalMuffin
Summary: fucking-- ok. dipper's working extremely early in the shack and, it being Gravity Falls, shit happens.
Relationships: Dipper Pines/Morty Smith
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	A whole new world

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a rough draft for something larger that I'm working on. I have zero idea if it's engaging or even clear, so here it goes out into the internet forever. fml.

It was early enough that orange-tinged sunlight filtered everything in the shop to have a warmer tint. With a quick glance to his watch, he sighed. 6:30 am. Or, if it fancied him, 5:30 in the evening, according to one of many clocks with random times. Something about the shop being ‘timeless’ according to Grunkle Stan. 

It also happened to be early enough that Dipper couldn’t stop yawning. Especially after being rudely awoken by his grunkle to run an early shift at the shop to ‘instill good work ethic’. 

For some reason, Dipper had a feeling it was more so to cover the shop while his grunkle went off to hide money or whatever it was he got up to these days.

Since Ford was off somewhere else on the continent for a few weeks, Stan was left to his own dubious devices. It was nice to have some one-on-one time with him for the past few weeks, but lately Dipper’s simply had enough and wished for time alone to think. Mabel chalked it up to teenagerly angst, while Wendy chalked it up to teenagerly activities, and Dipper had vehemently refused both and shoved them out of his room then. 

Now, as it was, it would be nice to appreciate the quiet morning-- and he couldn’t deny the time of day had it’s visual charms-- but he was simply too tired to be able to care. 

It was also boring as fuck. It was the forth summer since mabel and dipper began to spend their time at gravity falls, and the third one since they had dealt with a certain triangle. Every summer since then has been filled with adventures and drama, things changing drastically since that fateful first summer.

For one, Giddeon had mostly outgrown his malicious tendencies. Towards the twins, anyways. But what he did in his spare time was a mystery-- it left them well enough alone so they didn’t care much. Pacifica had also outgrown pretty much all of her means. She could still be petty and uptight at times, but it was a part of who she was. As of now though, she uses her critical eye constructively by dressing her friends in the most fashionable way possible for the more fanicer events they had somehow gotten themselves into. She also used it to help Mabel perfect her arts and crafts-- which turned out to be an unexpected common interest, apparently. 

One thing that hadn’t changed since then was Bill’s situation. Dipper couldn’t deny he had had a strong expectation for Bill to suddenly pop up into their lives again, causing more stress than Dipper thought he’d be able to handle. But much to his surprise--and a slight sense of disappointment that he chose aptly to ignore-- nothing had happened. Not a flicker in the sky. Not a suspiciously sudden gust of wind. Nightmares, but they were different than those controlled by Bill. Hell, the stone hadn’t even nudged. 

Dipper huffed amusedly as he remembered the times at home where he had been actively restricted by Mabel not to hound poor Soos over the phone about the Bill statue. It was so often that they still use the system they first put in place, even if he didn’t need it so much anymore. When Dipper found himself agonizing over the things on his phone too much, he’d toss it to Mabel who was within reach more often than not and she’d catch it without looking and stuff it into her pocket without missing a beat. 

Those who were not used to being around the twins usually gave them surprised and weird looks, but to them and their close friends and family, it wasn’t even a blip on their radar.  
Especially those in Gravity Falls. 

So much so, that when the twins first arrived on their forth summer, they had made a bet with themselves. Mabel, against her very code of soul, would go the entire summer without thinking, talking, or mooning over boys. In turn, Dipper, agonizingly, would not do anything to directly affect any mysteries around Gravity Falls. 

Since it was, Gravity Falls, though, he’d be allowed to guide anyone to resolve any testy supernatural things. This adjustment was made on the second day of their stay. 

It had, for the most part, been absolute hell. Mabel was nearly bursting at the seams constantly and has gone frazzled with looking for things to do to distract herself. Dipper, for the most part, had also been affected badly, but he kind of enjoyed the break from being the one responsible for resolving any and all issues when Ford wasn’t around. 

It did, however, have one unexpected but not unsurprising consequence. 

Dipper was bored. As. Fuck. It had been easy enough to reject any and all advances that would invite him to what would probably be an intriguing afternoon, or even a few days. After a certain adjustment period, that is. Besides, being able to avoid mysteries allowed him to focus on other aspects of his life, like Wendy. And school, hobbies, friends, etc. But mostly Wendy. 

The thing was, Wendy was acting weird these past few days. Avoiding eye contact when she could, but also being more distant emotionally and physically. Dipper had finally sucked up enough pride to ask Mabel about it and even she had noticed it too, apparently. 

Dipper sighed uselessly. It couldn’t be helped, he supposed. Especially now, at what, 6:45 was it now? Yeah. No one was coming by any time soon. Customers or friends. Especially Wendy. And Mabel wouldn’t be up for another 3 hours. Even then she had plans to hang with Pacifica all day doing Bill knows what anyway.

Yep. It was final. Dipper was going to be left to his own devices for the rest of the long, long day. 

With another, even deeper sigh, he looked out of the corner of his eye at the journal lying innocently in one of the shelves below the counter. Dipper wasn’t allowed to take it anywhere or even touch it unless it was an emergency. Which was a surprising amount actually, but not enough for him to feel quite satisfied in his use of it. Usually he’d be using this time to pour over the notes and make his own little edits here or there with the different creatures and/or procedures that he had… experienced first hand. 

It was fun. Fulfilling, too. So much so, in fact, that he’d been planning to make one of his own for a while. There was just the tiny part of him that agonized about everything being perfect. He had experience with the other journals and notes to fix and adjust here and there to make reading comprehensibility and probably future editing easier. The thing was, he couldn’t get himself to get started. 

Mabel had tried to help, but her passion for arts and crafts had taken over soon enough and she became too overbearing and overly enthusiastic about the glitter. 

Dipper knew that if he could talk to Wendy about it, she’d tell him not to worry and just start. Starting something was always better than just thinking about it forever. And Dipper knew that. He really did. He also knew that’s exactly what she’d say and that it would work wonders and metaphorically kick his ass into gear. 

But the thing was, having Wendy reassure him with that encouraging, supportive look in her eyes and comforting hand on his shoulder was thousands of times different than imagining her doing it. It was like comparing her to a cardboard cut out. 

Unfortunately, Dipper hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to her about it before she became all weird and distant. And he wouldn’t dare to even think of intruding on the space she obviously wanted, just so he could get something he wanted out of it. 

No, this was a thing Dipper Mason Pines would have to get over himself if he ever wanted even a rough draft to eventually throw out.

Shaking himself out of his focused stare at the space below the counter where the journal was, he noticed he had spent enough time thinking that he felt more awake. The orange sunlight had also morphed into a lighter yellow color, shadows growing in the shop as the sun rose past the window’s reach. 

It was now 7:03 and Dipper was exactly as bored as he was half an hour ago. 

He was just about to reach for his phone to at least annoy someone into being miserable with him when-- 

*ding ding!*

Dipper’s eyes shot up. 

Holy shit. 

At 7:04 in the fucking am in the middle of Bumfuck, Washington, on a Saturday morning, a customer came into the shop.

Not just any middle-aged, too-broke-for-anything-else customer either. Oh no. A fucking teenager. He couldn’t be more than a year older than Dipper, from the quick glance he snuck at him. 

The new teen made brief eye contact with Dipper before going along his merry way. There was something different about him to Dipper. Different, but familiar. 

Dipper listened as the teen quietly went about the shop, his pace a meandering one; As if he had nothing better to do than take his time looking around.

Dipper couldn’t put his finger on it. The guy looked normal enough; A plain yellow T-shirt and jeans. The yellow was a bit stark, but Dipper suspected that it was more so his inner Pacifica voice telling him that then any real weirdness. A notion with implications Dipper did not currently feel like dealing with.

The guy had soft and curly brown hair. And as he made his way to the snowglobes in the back, Dipper was able to sneak a better assessment. 

With a longer look, Dipper was able to notice the heavy case of resting-bitch-face the guy had going on. 

After a moment, the guy moved on and took a look at the lanyards and ‘disappearing’ ink pens. It was then that it hit Dipper. The guy moved cleanly, as if he lacked self-consciousness. Of course, it was seven in the morning on a weekend in the middle of summer break, and the guy could just be operating on several days of missed sleep, but that didn’t explain how he didn’t carry his weight like everyone else. 

It irked him. The guy’s posture reminded him of someone but for the life of him Dipper couldn’t place who it exactly was. 

After what seemed like hours, a little plastic slinky bracelet with a single charm in the shape of the tree on Dipper’s cap was placed in front of him.

Without looking up, dipper took the item and scanned it. Without taking his eyes off the register, Dipper told him the price with tax. When he was handed a wad of 100 dollar bills instead of five bucks, it was only then that Dipper took the chance to look the guy in the eye. 

Now that he was close enough to take in the other’s face in detail, he could see the dark circles etching themselves into permanence and the too-soon lines of worry unbefitting of a 16-17 year old. 

It was his gaze, however, that really got to Dipper. It was one that had seen shit. Not only bad shit either. No, this person had seen wonders the rest of the world couldn’t begin to fathom if their look of kindness --one that was specific to only those who had experienced the most-- was anything to go by. 

The look of tired acceptance and the small smile finally allowed him to put a name to the face he found it so familiar to. 

Ford Freaking Pines. 

It was Dipper’s own great Uncle staring at him with that lost, kind, yet respectful look he’d give Dipper over the standing cardboard when Dipper was DMing him and trying his best to hit his grunkle with the most unexpected shit. It was the look of amused acceptance, but acknowledgement that Dipper would never be able to truly surprise him or catch him off-guard. Not via made-up stories, anyway. 

And suddenly Dipper’s soul was returning to his body and back into the present where the guy was still giving that look-- even though it was laced with a tad bit more concern than a second ago.

“S-sorry, I just kinda zoned out there for a sec. It’s really early still, yanno?” Dipper laughed apologetically. 

He must have said something wrong because now the stranger’s eyebrows were knitted together as if he were annoyed or frustrated at something.

“Y-y-yeah, it is really early isn’t it?” He finally said. And holy shit, his voice was higher pitched than Dipper’s was. And dipper got made fun of for his voice more often than not, even if it had gotten deeper no matter what Mabel claimed. 

For some reason, however, despite the high pitch and the stutter, the way they were formed, the delivery sounded different too. It was like this guy had gone and experienced a full life and had been sucked back into the mid-to-end pubescent stage of life. Which wouldn't be that surprising to Dipper even if he wasn’t familiar with the situation.

Dipper took another beat to really absorb the presence of the other. He knew it was rude and a bit weird, but he had the feeling that if he just let him go he’d disappear from his life and memory as quickly as he had entered, and Dipper wasn’t quite ready to let go yet. He just knew, somehow, despite how crazy it sounded, that this was probably one of the very very few people who would really understand Dipper and what his life was made up of. 

He looked into the other’s eyes a bit longer, and couldn’t help but feel that maybe he thought so too-- hell, what was he doing? Dipper didn’t even know the guy's name.

Yet. 

The question was halfway formed in Dipper's mouth when the other suddenly turned his attention to the door that was behind Dipper and mostly forgotten in the moment. 

Not even a heartbeat later and the other was tackling Dipper to the ground and pressing him there. Dipper’s fight-or-flight instinct kicked in as he struggled to fight the guy off, straining to break free and get himself to a position of advantage in any way possible. A million half-formed thoughts flitted through his panic-seized brain, confusion muddling his mind, and he was sure he felt more than heard protest coming from the stranger. 

It was then that the doorway that now seemed so far out of Dipper’s reach, suddenly exploded inwards in a flurry of movement. 

Something huge and not-quite animal-like had burst in, huge pieces and small splinters of wood scattering across the shop. The large animal crashed into the shelves set up in the middle of the shop, a small part of Dipper dying as he witnessed ruined, shattered, and/or broken merchandise scattering across the floor. God, that would be a bitch to clean up later. 

Still struggling to get up, but less frantic to get away from his assaulter, he almost missed it.

But he couldn't have, in the end. He was incapable. Dipper Pines would never not be able to recognize the sound of Wendy’s voice, uncertain, confused, panicked. 

Dipper’s head shot up, uncaring of the dangers of possibly spooking the beast. He needed to get eyes on Wendy pronto. 

“Sh-shh-Shit dude! Get the fuck down! You don’t know what that thing is!” The stranger chastised in a harsh whisper below him. In the current moment, Dipper couldn’t care less. 

There. She was getting to her feet on the other side of a shelf that separated her from the hulking beast. She must have been riding the thing and been thrown off it’s back and onto the floor on the other side, for her to get there so quickly without it noticing.

It didn’t seem to know where she was yet, but it seemed to have a surprising amount of presence of mind from the way it swished it’s head from side to side, looking for the girl.

Dipper groweld a determined, teenage-boy growl. Not intimidating but showing of some frustration at least. He didn’t immediately know what to do as he recognized the form of the beast vaguely, but not how to act around it. He turned to where he knew the journal was located. 

Still on his knees from where he popped up, he turned to move toward the shelf, the other teen, a bit forgotten in the moment, hissed in protest.

Dipper waved his for-now companion off and reached for the Journal. It was just out of arm's reach but he could get it easily if he just shuffled--

Nope. The animal immediately turned it’s complete attention to Dipper. It huffed determinately and in Dipper’s mind he could see the cartoonish air flowing out of a bull’s nose clear as day. 

Careful not to alert the animal, Dippered slapped at the teen below him and pulled him with just wrist movements to the other side of Dipper’s knelt form. Surprisingly, the other--man Dipper’s really gotta come up with a name for him-- at least semi-understood what Dipper wanted, and managed to make his way to the other side of Dipper.

The other nudged Dipper a bit accidentally and the bull-like animal caught it, going completely still with narrowed eyes.

Strike Two. Dipper thought. He doesn’t think he’ll get another strike and go right to out. 

The teen huffed out an almost-silent apology and finally got to the shelves. Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper observed what he was doing, fully prepared to talk out of the corner of his mouth to lead the guy to what Dipper needed, but only blinked in shock as the teen almost immediately grabbed the Journal. 

Dipper knitted his eyebrows ever so slightly in confusion and the other just shrugged and pointed to the golden-gilded six-fingered hand on the spine. Fair enough. 

“Page 314, I think. Somewhere around there” Dipper whispered out of the corner of his mouth. The other nodded and flipped silently through. 

A burst of motion came from the far left of Dipper when Wendy suddenly let out a scream as she was now on top of the shelf she was hiding behind just a second ago. She held the bottom of a broken snow globe, eyes wide with crazed fury and hair sticking out in wild places. The Bull turned sharply towards her and with regret, Dipper turned away from her and took the book out of the stranger’s hands to speed-read. It was rude, but Dipper had most-certainly already read this part multiple times and would likely remember what to do after just a few words. Besides, emergency situation. Dipper hopes the teen can manage to spare a bit of forgiveness in this exact moment. 

In the next few moments, Dipper sped-read through the page and remembered what this animal was. A Beefalo. Of course. Slightly aggressive, but chill when left alone, as with most living things. Attracted to and actively seeks out super-angst. The best way to soothe it was to rub.. chili paste all along it’s back? No, that couldn’t be right. Even if it was there wasn’t exactly chili paste waiting around to be used. No, a few paragraphs after says the best way to get rid of it is to run it into the forest and either manage to chase it off or wait for it to lose interest. Dipper could do that. Definitely. It’s just that-- shit!

Dipper’s head shot up. The new teen was suddenly not at his side under the counter, but very pointedly picking up a passed out wendy. The Bull was shaking its head, as if it was dazed. 

Dipper stood and dropped the book on the counter to grab Wendy from the guy’s arms just as the bull’s attention came back into focus. 

Dipper knelt and placed Wendy gently down. She looked absolutely wrecked. At least she was in some form of sleep now. Dipper's ears registered a voice from above the counter he still wasn’t used to hearing. 

“So what now Mr. I-have-a-book-that’ll-solve-everything?” He sounded uncertain but not afraid. Weird.

Dipper didn’t need the book anymore, he remembered everything he would need to know now. 

Without standing, Dipper responded, “you’re going to have to distract him while I get outside as far away as I can--”

“What.”

“Hear me out!” Dipper loud-whispered. “Were gonna have to get him to chase me as far away as we can from here and then hide so he can just fucking lose interest and leave.” Dipper let his inner-frustration out a little at the end there. 

The was a moment of pause.

“You’re saying that if we can get him outside and away, he’ll just go away?” The guy said after a moment. 

Dipper didn’t like the question for a reason he couldn’t quite place. Where the fuck has he heard that tone before? “U-um yeah, basically. Pretty much.”

All Dipper heard was a deep sigh before comotion exploded once more. 

Dipper raised his head just above the counter to assess the situation just in time to see the teen get cornered against the wall opposite of the doorway out by the Bull. Before Dipper could even get up to slide over the counter, the Bull charged, and before Dipper could react to that, the guy had climbed up the waist-high shelves, used the area of the wall just above it as leverage as he Kicked off the wall and aimed just so that he would land straddling the back of the beast as it charged. 

Holy Shit. 

For a moment, the beast had its head stuck inside the wall, and the teen used the precious few seconds to twist himself so that he was straddling it facing forward. 

With a determined look, he grabbed the thing’s horns and pushed his feet against the wall to help get it’s head unstuck. It was, after a moment, both boy and beast teetered, unbalanced as the beast shook his head back into focus. 

It backed from the wall, and like a very drunk driver, backed into a multitude of things as it was forced to turn around by the pressure being placed on its neck by the boy on top. 

For a moment, Dipper caught the beast's eyes and saw the range and anger it harbored, and the will of it to charge into him and unwittingly, Wendy. 

Just as contact was made, the beast was forced to look to the doorway as the teen manhandled it’s horns to face it. 

Dipper was beyond astonished. Distantly, he noticed his mouth was wide open in wonder, but didn’t have the presence of mind to close it at the moment. 

And just like that, with a huff and an enraged snort, the beast reared --almost in slow motion-- and charged right out the doorway and whole it had made when it first crashed through. Boy gone with it. 

Dipper quickly shook off his astonishment and checked for horrible, life-threatening injuries on Wendy. When he didn’t immediately find anything, he dialed his emergency number for Mabel and hoped she would pick up.

He then hopped over the counter easily with his adrenaline-riddled body and raced after the boy and the Bull book under his arm.

It only took a bit of time to catch up to the pair. The beast had left a clear path and noises of struggle could be heard up ahead. 

Dipper was currently running in the midst of the woods, coming across a sudden cliff or two while following the trail the best he could. Years of active sports and wild summers didn’t hurt his chances of catching up with the two before either could hurt the other. 

Finally, Dipper came across a clearing where the teen was handling the sheer force of the bucking the beast was giving out, holy shit. 

Dipper, bookin in one hand, held out the other, and the Bull froze. Funnily enough, the sudden stop seemed to be the closest the beast could get to kicking off the other. 

It felt like a movie, really. The beast on one side of the clearing, frozen in place, attention fully focused on the had Dipper had held out in front of him, the new kid still holding on but looking confused from where Dipper could see from a distance. 

Slowly, with a languid menace, the thing approached Dipper. He hoped to hell his grunkle had been right about the thing seeing downward-facing palms, almost like a claw, and chilling out. 

As it approached, Dipper was starting to get the idea that the thing was just pissed off in general, and he switched gears.

Dipper began stepping slowly and calmly sideways to the edge of the forestry. His heart still pounded from the previous activities and the tension from the current one. 

Wincing, Dipper slowly placed the spine of the book between his teeth and raised both his arms. The Bull took this as the moment to charge, and in the moments it took to prepare, Dipper crouched. 

He’d been getting better at sports after every summer, so he was banking on the improved state of his athleticism here. 

Everything felt still. No birds chirped. A slight breeze had the bushes and pine leaves screaming their muted enthusiasm. The teen on the Bull breathed slow and deep.

Then the Bull was charging, and Dipper waited. And waited. Just a little longer….

There!

Dipper jumped, leaning forward just a bit, and used the Bulls head as a spring to get to the lowest hanging branch around the entire clearing. The other teen jumped from his perch further down the branch, closer to the base. 

For a heart-stopping moment, the branch swung harder than Dipper had anticipated. Both boys hung for dear life as it finally settled. 

As for the Bull, it returned from it’s charge and looked up. It stared at Dipper intensely, then to the other teen, then back to Dipper. 

Then, it walked away. The opposite direction of the Shack, thank fuck. 

Dipper huffed a full-bodied sigh of relief. When he opened his eyes, the brunet had his arm out in an offer to help pull the dipper fully onto the branch and closer to the base. He quickly took it. 

Dipper crawled his way to as close to the base as he could, where he could properly sit up and balanced without worry, and slumped onto his arms. 

For a minute or two, all either boy could hear was the breeze and their and the strain of their lungs attempting to get back control of their intake of oxygen. 

Naturally, both began to laugh. Lighthearted and tinted with the relief of barely getting out of a dangerous situation. 

“I- I-I don’t even know why I’m out of breath!” the teen laughed, face in hand. “This wasn’t even close to the top ten most dangerous shit I’ve gone through!”

Dipper barked out a laugh, “You're telling me!” he felt his grin grow, “I’ve murdered lifesized wax figurines of famous people who were trying to murder me!” Dipper laughed harder, leaning a bit too far back. 

The other teen caught his shirt easily and pulled him back into place, “pfft, that’s nothing. Ever been chased by hepatitis C while in a dead old man bigger than the planet?” the teen chuckled to himself, “and then flown out of his nipple?”.

Dipper burst into another violent fit of laughter. He was getting ready to share his experience with a bunch of gnomes when right there in the air next to them, a flat green, glowy oval disk of what looked like goo burst into existence. 

Even weirder yet, two forms spilled out of them before the disk closed back out of existence. Said forms landed roughly on the ground below, sounds of shock likely from the unexpected height could be heard. 

A rough, deep, and strangely garbled voice sounded from below, “Ow, w-what the fuck Morty?” 

An very familiar sound of offended shock quickly followed, “What did I tell you about-” suddenly Mabel was getting up and pushing at the.. Old man? At the old man’s shoulder. Said old person looking disgruntled as fuck. 

“Y-yeah yeah, what fucking ever, weirdo.” Another shocked gasp. 

“You're the weirdo! I told you not to talk to those very nice alien ladies like that and look what happened! They hated us!”

The old man made a frustrated noise of indignation “they hated us because they knew I--!” The man paused, seeming to rethink his words, then shrugged. “Whatever, loser.” He stood and brushed himself off then looked up. “Feel like coming down anytime soon or--urp-icness? Or do I need to help you down like the shiny white-armored incel I am.” 

Dipper looked back to the teen-- Morty?-- for his response. All he did was roll his eyes as far as they could go and jumped down. From like, 8 feet. Gracefully. What. The fuck.

Mabel Shrieked and Dipper winced. “Holy crap Dipper? I didn’t expect to see you here!!” She screamed from below, hands fanned out against her face despite him being able to hear them just fine from his height. 

“Y-Yeah, Right here. Just hanging out. Like you doooo.” 

Mabel looked at him apologetically. “Awww, does baby bro need help getting down?” She teased. 

Dipper huffed. It was crazy. He had fallen from much worse heights at least a few times. It still weirded him out though. The heights thing. 

After a second of pointedly ignoring the old man’s snickering, Dipper took a deep breath and leaped down. He landed a bit roughly, jarring his knees a little, before rising back up. 

Morty looked at him a moment. “Next time, if it’s a sheer drop like that, try to hug the closest wall or pillar-- that way it minimizes the height a little. If it’s more tilted, aim to roll.” he advised calmly. 

Dipper nodded silently. The old man, however, whistled mockingly. 

“Damn Morty, when’d you get so wise and old? Such a wise and all-knowing elder.” Morty gave the old man that could freeze hell over. Dipper suspected something else was going on that he wasn’t privy to, to get that reaction. 

The old man looked affected by it too, if his slight deflation was any indication. “Right. Forgot what a killjoy you’ve become too.” he added. 

“Just take me home, Rick.” Morty snapped. Then, after a moment, he looked down towards the ground. “Please, just take me home already.” he asked quietly. 

After a moment of calculated staring, Rick shot a portal and went through with only one brief look back at Mabel. 

“Stay up-tight, loser.” and then he vanished into the goo. Mabel waved a small, unseen goodbye. 

Dipper looked back to Morty, who was already looking at him. 

“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself or talk much, I’m kind of awkward.” 

Dipper huffed a small nervous laugh, “no man, I totally get it, no worries.” He gave him an awkward thumbs up and immediately regretted it. 

Morty gave him a small smile before turning and disappearing into the goo right as it closed. 

The forest felt a little more darker without it.

It was quiet for a long moment. 

Then, “what the fuck was that?”.

The twins argued over who was more shocked and offended that one had snuck out without telling the other, but eventually Dipper won out since his 15 year old sister had suddenly appeared through a portal with a very old and very strange man. She shrugged and gave in, agreeing that it was weird as fuck. 

It was then that Dipper remembered Wendy. And Mabel’s probable lack of taking care of the situation as she was right next to him at that moment. 

He took off towards the shack, a confused Mabel at his heels. 

When they got back to the shack, Wendy had begun to regain consciousness as she was now standing and leaning over the counter with her hand held to her head as if it hurt. Which it probably did. 

When she noticed the pair, however, she took her hand away from her head and walked around the counter and calmly past them. 

As she passed Dipper called her name. She didn’t respond. He went to grab for her hand but before he could she scrambled to get away from his reach, stumbling down the old porch. 

Mabel went to help her, and Wendy accepted her help. She also accepted Mabel’s offer to help her home. Without a second backwards glance from Wendy, and with Mabel’s concerned looks from Wendy to the ruined shop, to the ruined doorway, to the emotionally broken Dipper, they made their way out of the Shack’s clearing. 

Dipper stood there, in the middle of the destruction of the shop, facing the broken doorway, for a long time.

Long enough for Soos to come around and have a cow about the poor, poor merchandise. 

The sun was now high enough up that the sunlight was a normal white shade, and the shack was dim with most of the electrical lighting broken. 

Dejectedly, Dipper looked at his watch. It read 8:12 am.

**Author's Note:**

> if it was entertaining at all please lmk however you like! it it wasnt, please even more so tell me!! spelling's shit? grammar's unclear? the premise just fuckin' sucks as a whole? great! i wanna fix.


End file.
